Introduction to VHDL

• V for VHSIC or Very High-Speed Integrated Circuit, HDL for Hardware Description Language.
• Concurrent language, not like sequential programming languages
  • describes hardware
• VHDL can be used to model digital circuits and systems
• The VHDL model can also be translated into a form that can be used to generate actual working circuits.

Golden Rules of VHDL

• VHDL is hardware-design language
• Have a general concept of what your hardware should look like

Tools needed for VHDL Development

• Implement using a field programmable gate array (FPGA)
• The successful implementation of a VHDL-based system roughly calls for the following steps: VHDL code writing, compiling, simulation and synthesis.